1. Field of the invention
The field of this invention relates to aircraft door operating mechanisms which permit the opening of aircraft doors. More particularly, this invention relates to powered aircraft door operating mechanisms which open doors on the lower curved section of aircraft, which may be operated from both inside and outside of the aircraft and which permit either powered or manual operation thereof by utilizing aircraft electrical power or stored mechanical energy.
2. Related Art
There are many types of doors used on transport aircraft. Such doors are sized for various applications and their functional requirements vary. Most doors fall into the following groupings: passenger doors, cargo doors, or maintenance access doors. Passenger doors are typically on the upper section of an airplane fuselage while cargo and access doors are on the lower section. Each type of door has some special requirements.
On certain large or jumbo aircraft, there may be a passenger deck on the lower portion of the fuselage, forward of the wing. This is called the panorama deck configuration and provides for at least two passenger doors, one on each side of the aircraft.
In addition to curving inward at the bottom, passenger access doors on the lower side of the aircraft have many unique requirements. In addition to the normal opening, closing and emergency opening operations such doors must also be a plug type door that opens inward to provide clearance for the galley service equipment and be operable only by human effort. The door must also be capable of withstanding ditching loads, that is it must have a locking capability which withstands external water pressure loads.
Such doors must have powered open and closing capability while permitting opening in emergency situations when aircraft supplied central power systems may be disabled. In addition, automatic slide deployment in the emergency opening mode must also be incorporated.
For example upper deck doors in use today move inward and slide aft on an upper track and a lower track. This door is without power assist and is operated entirely with human effort. Due to panorama deck door configuration constraints and operating requirements such a system is not useable on panorama deck plug type access doors which must open inward, move upward and then slide forward to avoid intrusion on passenger space or interference with the exit size.